The present invention refers to a technique for allocating a storage area of a storage system to a computer.
The switch that integrates a plurality of storage areas of a plurality of storage systems and allows them to access a computer as one storage area is disclosed in a patent document 1. According to the patent document 1, the switch is coupled to a plurality of storage systems and a host. The switch receives an access request from the host to an integrated logical unit comprising a plurality of storage areas (logical units) of the plurality of storage systems. Thereafter, the switch converts the access request received to an access request to a logical unit in which data to be accessed is stored, and transmits the access request thus converted to a storage system that has the logical unit.
On the other hand, a software technique, which, when the logical storage area allocated to a computer is extended, recognizes the extension of storage area at the part of a computer, is disclosed in a non-patent document 1.
Meanwhile, the patent document 1 implies the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-242434, and the non-patent document 1 implies the “LVM HOWTO9.9” which appears in the URL “http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/LVM-HOWTO/x592.html”.